I have a lot of MHRB now and I want to try both A/B and STB and compare results.

I've done both before but not from the same bark.
I find STB easier and quicker and I also hate the smell of the acid cook. I just find A/B a lot more trouble and time consuming so I'm wondering why people do A/B. Are you getting much better results with an A/B than with an STB?

So what's your choice? A/B or STB?

seriously seriously seriously!

no WAY is an STB quicker. If you want to get all of the spice out of the bark an STB can take weeks. With an A/B you can get all the spice out of the bark in less than one day. If you are only giving your STB 1 day to soak then you are throwing away spice.

Also I don't think with an STB you can ever be sure that you have 99% of the alks from the bark. With an A/B you can keep changing the water until it comes out completely clear then reduce in less than 1 day.

That said due to logistical reasons my last 3 extractions have been STB Some folk just won't let me near a stove!

Lime A/B with vinegar and lime. Gets almost 1% in 2-3 hours (then the 12-24 hour freezer precipitation)
Then you can do limonene/xylene pulls after to get the n-oxides and jungle. Easy as pie
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A/B. always. no questions. no exceptions.

I prefer A/B because it uses less solvent and less NaOH, as I can concentrate the DMT-containing solution quite a lot (I reduce to ~300mL for 200g bark). Smaller volume at the end makes pulling easy as I use a separatory funnel.

Thank you all for your answers.
Like I said I will compare the two methods on the same bark.

I've used vinegar for my A/B and I can hardly stand the smell when boiling down. Are there some other acids that don't have as much smell? I'm thinking it's worth it to loose a bit of DMT in a STB tek just to avoid the smell of the acid boiling

aww... I love that smell!

HCl acid boils smell great, IMO. Smells pretty much just like Mimosa, which is a sort of sweet, earthy smell.

Phosphoric acid.

1 drop 10% phos. acid per 94.625ml distilled water = pH 3

So it's enough just to go down to pH 3 with whatever acid or?

Always do an a/b the result is so much cleaner. Use hydrochloric or phosphoric acid not vinegar.

why not vinegar?

Vinegar works as well, but some people are afraid of it evaporating away (the boiling point of dmt acetate is around 150C?). Part of dmt acetate may escape the brew. during really long boils.

Plus, the smell of vinegar is just eeeeeew even in tiny amounts (but that last one only for SWIM).

EDIT; SWIM voted for A/B; REAL extractors go for the real stuff, and A/B is the real stuff. STB is no bad and certainly good for beginners, but it is such a blunt way of extracting.

So as I just gently simmer and don't mind the smell then vinegar's not a problem then?

Well, of course!

SWIM has only used vinegar once in A/B and he had the expected yields. The only annoyance was the vinegary smell.

Another concern may be the volatility of acetic acid, but that is for those who are totally anal with details. A vinegar boil would, by time, acquire higher pH due to the loss of acetic acid. But on the other hand HCl in dilute hydrochloric acid solutions is also volatile to some extent. Let along that pH is temperature-sensitive.

Bottom line is that despite a myriad of possible concerns, vinegar works.

Ok. Thank you for your reply's.
I've only used vinegar for my A/B and I hate the smell. So what I need to do is to try different acid.
It's just so easy to find vinegar. It's in every store food grade. I have no clue where to find hydrochloric or phosphoric acid where I live. Well I just have to search for it.

Citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid are also commonly available, especially citric acid. In the "worst" case, one can squeeze a lemon and get loads of citric acid as well as ascorbic acid!

Why would that be a worst case scenario? Is the lemon juice not acidic enough?
Sounds good to me to just squeeze a lemon Mmmm I like the smell of lemons

Check out pool shops for hydrochloric/muriatic acid and hydroponic shops for phosphoric acid (ph down). A 500ml bottle will last you forever they are pretty strong acids.

There are no pool shops around here but one that sells hot tubs around the corner. I'll check there. But couldn't I just go to a hydroponics store and buy pH down that's used for growing weed.
That should be safe for an acid cook if it's safe for the plants.